Oil pan assembly

ABSTRACT

An oil pan assembly for an engine may include: an oil pan mounted at a lower portion of a cylinder block of the engine and formed with a space therein, in which oil can be stored; and a support bracket mounted at one side of the oil pan for coupling with an air conditioner compressor or a transmission. In particular, a protrusion portion is formed at an upper surface of the support bracket and upwardly protruded.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority to and the benefit of Korean PatentApplication. 10-2018-0169244, filed on Dec. 26, 2018, the entirecontents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to an oil pan assembly mounted at acylinder block of a vehicle.

BACKGROUND

The statements in this section merely provide background informationrelated to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.

Since an engine includes numerous parts rubbing against each otherduring driven, and those rubbing parts are worn down and cause powerloss. Thus, engine oil should be supplied to lubricate each moving partin order to prevent this.

Referring to FIG. 1, the oil for lubricating the engine is gathered inan oil pan 10 mounted a lower portion of a cylinder block 20 at whichengine parts are mounted and supplied to main parts of the engine by apump.

Further, the oil pan 10 needs to be fastened to a heavy-weight objectsuch as a transmission or an air conditioner compressor.

However, when the oil pan 10 is made of steel material of 7.8 g/cm³density, NVH (Noise, Vibration, Harshness) performance can be good, butit cannot be used for direct fastening to the weight object such as atransmission or an air conditioner compressor.

Further, in the case of aluminum (density 2.7 g/cm³) oil pan which ismainly used now, it is possible to fasten with the weight objectdirectly, but it requires thickness of 2.5 t or more, which limits thelight weight and requires reinforcement of NVH performance. Thus, it isdesired to attach an oil pan cover 14 to the lower portion of oil pan10, which deteriorates the cost competitiveness.

Further, in the case of magnesium of 1.74 g/cm³ density, in comparisonwith aluminum, NVH performance is disadvantageous, and the increase (2.5t->3.5 t or more) in general thickness makes the effect of the weightreduction inadequate, resulting in increase of material cost.

Next, structurally, it is directly fasten to the weight object such asthe air conditioner compressor and exposed to repeated loads by drivingof a belt of accessory drive system for driving an air conditionercompressor and an alternator.

In addition, in order for coupling with the air conditioner compressor,two fastening points 11 are formed at the oil pan 10 and one fasteningpoint 21 is formed at the cylinder block 20 so that three fasteningpoints are dispersedly formed, and also, a belt idler fastening point 12of the accessory drive system and a transmission housing assemble flange13 are formed.

Therefore, we have discovered that considering all the dispersedfastening points, tolerance management of the assembly position of thefastening part is required, and thus, two or more dowel pins 30 shouldbe applied.

So, even after the increase in vehicle mileage, durability (e.g., beltdurability of the air conditioner) and noise reduction can be secured.

The foregoing is intended merely to aid in the understanding of thebackground of the present disclosure, and is not intended to mean thatthe present disclosure falls within the purview of the related art thatis already known to those skilled in the art.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure provides an oil pan assembly capable of improvingits durability and reliability by absorbing the assembly tolerance of aweight object to which the oil pan is attached.

An oil pan assembly for an engine according to one aspect of the presentdisclosure may include: an oil pan mounted at a lower portion of acylinder block of the engine and configured to form a space to storeoil; and a support bracket mounted at one side of the oil pan andconfigured to couple with an air conditioner compressor or atransmission. In particular, a protrusion portion is formed at an uppersurface of the support bracket to be upwardly protruded.

The oil pan may be made of plastic material.

A first flange hole may be formed at a lower surface of the oil pan, andthe protrusion portion of the support bracket may penetrate the firstflange hole to be mounted at the oil pan.

The support bracket may be made of aluminum, magnesium or cast ironmaterial.

The protrusion portion of the support bracket may be formed as a pintype and pressed in the support bracket after processed separately.

The protrusion portion may be integrally formed with the supportbracket.

A bush type protrusion portion may be formed at an upper surface of thesupport bracket to be upwardly protruded; a second flange hole may beformed at a lower surface of the oil pan; and the bush type protrusionportion may penetrate the second flange hole so that the air conditionercompressor support bracket is mounted at the oil pan.

The protrusion portion of the support bracket may penetrate the oil panto be inserted into and fixed at a lower portion of the cylinder block.

In accordance with the oil pan assembly of the present disclosure, theoil pan is made of plastic material, weight object is fastened to theoil pan through the support bracket, and the support bracket is alsoprovided with the dowel pin function, so that it does not requireassemble tolerance management by separate dowel pins.

Therefore, durability reliability is further improved, and the oil pancover for NVH performance is not required so that cost reduction can beexpected.

Further, oil temperature rising time can be shorten compared to analuminum oil pan, thereby obtaining the effecting of improving fuelefficiency.

Further areas of applicability will become apparent from the descriptionprovided herein. It should be understood that the description andspecific examples are intended for purposes of illustration only and arenot intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.

DRAWINGS

In order that the disclosure may be well understood, there will now bedescribed various forms thereof, given by way of example, referencebeing made to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 shows coupling relationship between a cylinder block and an oilpan according to prior art;

FIG. 2 shows an oil pan assembly according to one form of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged drawing of “A” portion of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 shows a support bracket for an air conditioner compressoraccording to one form of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 5 is an enlarged drawing of a portion of the air conditionercompressor support bracket of FIG. 4.

The drawings described herein are for illustration purposes only and arenot intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description is merely exemplary in nature and is notintended to limit the present disclosure, application, or uses. Itshould be understood that throughout the drawings, correspondingreference numerals indicate like or corresponding parts and features.

In order to fully understand the present disclosure, and the benefitsand objectives achieved by exemplary forms of the present disclosure, itshould refer to the accompanying drawings that illustrate exemplaryforms of the present disclosure and the description in the accompanyingdrawings.

In describing the exemplary forms of the present disclosure, knowntechniques or repetitive description that would unnecessarily obscurethe point of the present disclosure would reduce or omit thedescription.

FIG. 2 shows an oil pan assembly according to the present disclosure;and FIG. 3 is an enlarged drawing of “A” portion of FIG. 2.

Hereinafter, referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, an oil pan assembly for anengine according to an exemplary form of the present disclosure will bedescribed in detail.

The oil pan assembly may be mounted at a lower portion of a cylinderblock (not shown) and have a space for storing oil therein so that theoil can be supplied to an engine by an oil pump (not shown).

Further, a weight object such as an air conditioner compressor or atransmission may be fastened to the oil pan assembly.

For this, the oil pan assembly according to one form of the presentdisclosure may include an oil pan 110 and a support bracket, and thesupport bracket may be an air conditioner compressor support bracket 120or a transmission support bracket 130.

The oil pan 110 constituting the oil pan assembly may be made of plasticmaterial unlike the conventional aluminum material.

Therefore, it can be lightweight compared to the conventional aluminummaterial, and it is possible to apply a separate aluminum bracket tosupport the weight object, so that NVH performance can be improved.

Thus, it does not require a conventional oil pan cover for NVHperformance reinforcement, which can save cost.

In addition, oil temperature rising time can be shorten by the oil panof plastic material compared to the conventional aluminum material,thereby improving fuel efficiency.

A first flange hole 111 and a second flange hole 112 for fastening witha separate aluminum bracket may be formed at a lower surface of the oilpan 110.

The separate bracket may be made of magnesium or cast iron in additionto aluminum.

An air conditioner compressor support bracket 120 may be mounted at oneside of the oil pan 110 and an air conditioner compressor may be coupledthereto. The air conditioner compressor support bracket 120 may have ashape corresponding to one-sided outer circumference shape of the oilpan 120 being coupled thereto, an outer shape for coupling with the airconditioner compressor and a structural shape for couplingreinforcement.

A transmission support bracket 130 may be mounted on another side thatis different from the one side on which the air conditioner compressorsupport bracket 120 is mounted and a transmission may be coupledthereto. The transmission support bracket 130 may have a shapecorresponding to one-sided outer circumference shape of the oil pan 120being coupled thereto as like the air conditioner compressor supportbracket 120, an outer shape for coupling with the transmission and astructural shape for coupling reinforcement.

Only the air conditioner compressor support brackets is shown, but theoil pan assembly of the present disclosure is fastened with the weightobject through the support bracket, so that it is not necessary todisperse the fastening points for fastening with the weight object inthe oil pan. Thus, dowel pins are not required to resolve the assemblytolerance considering all fastening points.

A protrusion portion formed to be upwardly protruded from an uppersurface of the support bracket serves as the tolerance absorbing meansinstead of the function of the dowel pins to absorb the tolerance due tothe fastening with the weight object, thereby improving the durability.

As shown in FIG. 3, a pin type protrusion portion 121 may be formed atthe air conditioner compressor support bracket 120 as the toleranceabsorbing means for the function of the dowel pins and the pin typeprotrusion portion 121 may be inserted into the first flange hole 111formed at a lower surface of the oil pan 110.

The pin type protrusion portion 121 may be pressed in the airconditioner compressor support bracket 120 after processing pins asseparate product.

Otherwise, the pin type protrusion portion 121 may be made by processingto be integrally formed at the air conditioner compressor supportbracket 120.

Further, as shown in drawings, the pin type protrusion portion 121 maybe formed to be protruded in length to penetrate the first flange hole111 so that the assembly tolerance can be managed by an upper protrudedportion of the pin type protrusion portion 121.

In addition, a chamfer shape may be formed at the pin type protrusionportion 121 between the protrusion portion 121 and the upper surface ofthe air conditioner compressor support bracket 120 so that it is able toresolve the assembly tolerance and improve durability reliability suchas an air conditioner belt wear and noise after the mileage increase.

FIG. 4 shows another exemplary form of an air conditioner compressorsupport bracket according to the present disclosure; and FIG. 5 is anenlarged drawing of a portion of the air conditioner compressor supportbracket of FIG. 4.

An air conditioner compressor support bracket according to anotherexemplary form may include a bush type protrusion portion 122 as thetolerance absorbing means for the function of dowel pins, and the bushtype protrusion portion 122 may be inserted into the second flange hole112.

The bush type protrusion portion 122 may be made by processing to beintegrally formed at the upper surface of the air conditioner compressorsupport bracket 120.

Further, as shown in drawings, the bush type protrusion portion 122 maybe formed to be protruded in length to penetrate the second flange hole112 so that the assembly tolerance can be managed by an upper protrudedportion of the bush type protrusion portion 122.

In addition, a chamfer shape may be formed at the bush type protrusionportion 122 between the protrusion portion 122 and the upper surface ofthe air conditioner compressor support bracket 120 so that the functionsof sealing and dowel pins can be simultaneously performed.

As described above, the oil pan assembly of the present disclosure doesnot require an oil pan cover for NVH reinforcement by the plastic oilpan and can absorb the tolerance without adding dowel pins by mounting aseparate support bracket such as aluminum, and so on, thereby improvingdurability.

Although the present disclosure has been described with reference to thedrawings, it is to be understood that the present disclosure is notlimited to the disclosed exemplary forms, and it will be apparent tothose skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may bemade without departing from the spirit and scope of the presentdisclosure. Accordingly, such modifications or exemplary variationsshould fall within the scope of the present disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. An oil pan assembly for an engine, comprising: anoil pan mounted at a lower portion of a cylinder block of the engine andconfigured to form a space to store oil; and a support bracket mountedat one side of the oil pan and configured to couple with an airconditioner compressor or a transmission, wherein a protrusion portionis formed at an upper surface of the support bracket and upwardlyprotruded.
 2. The oil pan assembly of claim 1, wherein the oil pan ismade of plastic material.
 3. The oil pan assembly of claim 1, wherein: afirst flange hole is formed at a lower surface of the oil pan; and theprotrusion portion of the support bracket penetrates the first flangehole to be mounted at the oil pan.
 4. The oil pan assembly of claim 3,wherein the support bracket is made of aluminum, magnesium or cast ironmaterial.
 5. The oil pan assembly of claim 3, wherein the protrusionportion of the support bracket is formed as a pin type and pressed inthe support bracket after processed separately.
 6. The oil pan assemblyof claim 3, wherein the protrusion portion is integrally formed with thesupport bracket.
 7. The oil pan assembly of claim 1, wherein: a bushtype protrusion portion is formed at the upper surface of the supportbracket to be upwardly protruded; a second flange hole is formed at alower surface of the oil pan; and the bush type protrusion portionpenetrates the second flange hole so that the support bracket is mountedat the oil pan.
 8. The oil pan assembly of claim 1, wherein theprotrusion portion of the support bracket penetrates the oil pan to beinserted into and fixed at a lower portion of the cylinder block.